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The economic miracle in China (especially in the coastal provinces) can be attributed to the large "floating" (or transient) population whose members have fled their villages in order to improve their lives. Using this same logic, even those with connections and financial wherewithal have sought options to go overseas to look for opportunities. The search for better paying jobs has been voracious, fanned largely by a freshly opened society having a weak safety net and few social resources.

The prevailing belief in China is that the only security anyone can achieve is to make as much money as possible in one’s lifetime. Coupled with the longstanding cultural practice of showing off one’s success in the form of material possessions, Chinese people—young and old, men and women—have for the past two decades spawned a massive tidal wave of job hunters. Under intense competition to survive in a new economic system, even morality has come to be measured by material success. In China there has long been a saying: people will laugh at poverty but not at prostitution (xiaopingbuxiaochang). To be poor is to be looked down upon.

As China’s economy continued its vigorous growth in the 1980s and 1990s, many government officials and entrepreneurs began to travel overseas. Soon they were followed by increasing numbers of students going overseas to study. In the twenty-first century, as a new middle class began to develop in China, the world community, especially countries in Asia and Western Europe, began to relax their visa restrictions for Chinese citizens in hopes of bolstering their own tourism industries. Quickly, Chinese tourists became the predominant group of visitors in many countries that rely on tourism as a major source of income. Of course, the increased ease of traveling to neighboring countries in Asia, and even to Western Europe, enabled both men and women to go overseas. This was true whether they were tourists or were actually seeking opportunities to make money abroad.

The marketing of the sexual services of Chinese women in Asia and in the United States was made possible because the women who went abroad to make money in commercial sex largely catered to the Chinese men working or living in those countries. In fact, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Singapore are all Chinese societies, and there is as well a large Chinese presence in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the United States.

Ah Lian, a 35-year-old divorced woman from Xinhui (Guangdong), was working on the streets of a red-light district in Singapore when we interviewed her. Her reason for going to Singapore and working as a prostitute was very simple: "I came to make money. The amount of money you make a month in Singapore is about the same as what you make in ten years in China. I made $70 a month in China. After deducting $7 a month for lodging at the factory, I took home $63 a month and $750 a year—$7,500 in ten years. I can make $7,500 a month in Singapore".

Some of our subjects entered prostitution not because they needed money for themselves, but rather for their family. The reasons why these subjects’ families were in dire financial situations can be categorized into (1) there was a crisis in the family, (2) the head of the household was not supporting the family, (3) the husband was not supporting his wife, and (4) a divorced woman needed to support her family.

Some of our subjects went overseas because there was a crisis in the family and they needed to earn a substantial amount of money in a hurry. Miao Miao, a 24-year-old single woman from Liuzhou (Guangxi), who was not a xiaojie in China, explained why she went to Macau and took up commercial sex: "I needed to make a large amount of money in a very short time. My brother was arrested for assault. My family spent plenty of money on his case. In the end, he was sentenced to prison and my parents owed a huge debt. After witnessing how devastated my parents were with my brother’s imprisonment and our financial predicament, I decided to come to Macau to engage in prostitution to help them repay the debt".

Common people in China, as opposed to those of higher status, are unlikely to obtain a loan from a bank, and poor people are also unlikely to find relatives or friends who are willing to lend them money. When there is a crisis and money is needed to deal with the crisis, many ordinary families must thus rely on sometimes drastic measures to find the money. Becoming a prostitute may be one such drastic measure.

As mentioned, other subjects went overseas mainly because they wanted to get away from their husbands or boyfriends. A small number of subjects said they were interested in going abroad because they thought the commercial sex business overseas was less competitive than in China, and that they would get more business and make more money. Dan Dan, a 31-year-old woman who had been to Singapore and Malaysia, explained why she began to go overseas after being a xiaojie for about ten years in China:

When I was in China, I met a xiaojie who came back from Indonesia. She said she was willing to be my agent. She told me that I could make more than $2,500 a month there. At that time, the price for "an hour" in China had decreased to $40 from $125. Not only had the price decreased, but it became more competitive because not only were there more girls entering this line of work, but they were also younger. That’s why I wanted to go overseas.

In addition to their desire to make money or having been recruited by a chickenhead, some of our subjects went overseas just to travel and to see the world. Even if they returned home without much money, they thought it would be fun and exciting to be abroad for a short time and to see what it was like to live in a different culture and a different climate. Sociologist Laura Maria Agustin, in her research on foreign women selling sex in Europe, also made the point that many women have a "desire to travel, see the world, make money and accept whatever jobs are available along the way," and they "do not fall into neat categories: ‘victims of trafficking’, ‘migrant sex worker’, ‘forced migrants’, ‘prostituted women’. Their lives are far more complex—and interesting—than such labels imply."18 Unpacking these categories and the often blurred distinctions among them does create a much more complicated picture—a picture that does not lend itself to simple policy and practice prescriptions. On the other hand, that much more realistic picture would certainly be more accurate and could lead to better targeted and more cost-effective solutions.

PRC Escort is an outcall escort agency in Kuala Lumpur specializing in Asian escorts. We have the greatest selection as well as the most beautiful Asian girls in the market. Our girls are open-minded and beautiful while most of them are part-time freelancers.

They provide companionship at the friendliest and most intimate levels so if you are looking for escort service in Kuala Lumpur PRC Escort is the ultimate choice. We are the specialist for Asian escorts in Kuala Lumpur and everybody knows that.

Asian Escorts are one of the most popular escorts in Kuala Lumpur because most of them can speak Mandarin while they are very service oriented. If you want to drink they will drink with you. If you want to party they’ll party with you.

If you get horny they will relieve you. If you want to enjoy a threesome or 3P experience they are more than willing to bring their girlfriend to join in. They rarely reject customers and willing to spend time with clients of all nationalities.

Twenty-eight of our subjects (19%) were helped by a company to go overseas. These subjects, most of them in Los Angeles or New York, were helped by "broker companies" that specialize in assisting Chinese citizens to go abroad. In this scenario, no returned prostitutes are involved; the subjects take the initiative, contact a broker company, and ask the company to help them leave China.

After these women arrive in the United States, their relationship with the broker company ends, and they later enter the sex business on their own. Their migration experiences are actually quite similar to the Fujianese who are smuggled into the United States by human smugglers for a fee, except that these women paid significantly less than the Fujianese and almost always flew into the United States as opposed to the Fujianese use of sea or land routes.

As mentioned previously, thirteen subjects (9%) were assisted by chicken-heads—men who help Chinese women to enter the profession and then take a cut of the women’s earnings, or in some cases actually take all the earnings. Women we met in Macau were significantly more likely to be engaged with chickenheads than subjects in any other sites.

Another ten subjects (7%) were helped by their husband or boyfriend to go overseas. Of the ten, six were women we interviewed in Los Angeles and New York, and they arrived in the United States after they had married American citizens.

There is also evidence that the various intermediaries in different sites tended to recruit in particular areas. Consequently, we observed a noticeably large number of women from Sichuan in Hong Kong, from Hunan in Macau, and from Beijing in Los Angeles. This could be attributed to the effect of the network development described earlier.

The issue of intermediaries is very much related to the definition of sex trafficking. Some scholars and practitioners have argued that if a woman is helped to go overseas to engage in commercial sex, then she is a trafficking victim, regardless of who the helper is or how the help is provided. If this is the case, then more than 90 percent of our female subjects could be considered to be trafficking victims. We, however, believe such a view to be an overly broad and simplistic perception of how the process actually works, and will pick up the issue again when we discuss the definition and prevalence of sex trafficking in next chapter.

The common belief is that the women involved have been tricked, forced, or otherwise coerced into commercial sex after having been trafficked to some other country. We are sure that this occurs—in fact we know it does—but is it the whole story?

Rarely, if at all, is the possibility entertained that some of these women may have been engaged in prostitution before they went overseas. Likewise, not much consideration has been given to the possibility that some women may actually elect to travel abroad to become involved in commercial sex as the best option that appears to be available to them. Or, that once having gone overseas, whatever their original motivations, commercial sex comes to be seen by some to be their most viable option. Are there, in other words, lumped in with the population defined as sex trafficking victims, distinct subgroups?

Of course, our study pertains only to Chinese women working in commercial sex outside China, and whatever our findings about these Chinese women, they may not apply them to other ethnic groups such as the Nepalese, the Thais, the Nigerians, or the Ukrainians who are likewise engaged in commercial sex abroad.

Actually, we are not even claiming that our findings are absolutely applicable to the larger population of Chinese women engaging in commercial sex outside China, because as already described, ours is not a random sample. Irrespective of these limitations, we firmly believe that what we have learned about the characteristics and experiences of our particular subjects tells us a lot about the women who are engaged in transnational commercial sex.

Half of our subjects were either married (24%) or divorced (26%), and 40 percent of them had at least one child. All the married or divorced women became prostitutes only after their marriages. There is a possibility that a very small number of subjects might have deceived us about their marital status, telling us they were divorced when in fact their marriages were intact, or saying they were single when they were actually married. Juan Juan, a 42-year-old married woman from Yingkou (Liaoning Province) who was working as a hostess in Bangkok, explained why they might do this: "I am married and I have a good relationship with my husband, but I tell my customers here that I am divorced. Otherwise, why would they give me money? If I say I am married, they will think that I will give all the money they give me to my husband".

Given their typical circumstances, it is not difficult to imagine that these women did not have especially good, high paying jobs in China. But that does not mean they were necessarily only ordinary workers or unemployed. Instead nearly a third of them reported doing what is considered professional work, or they worked for the government or in a private business, or were involved in the entertainment business. The latter is of particular interest because the entertainment sector has been considered a target for the recruitment of young women with aspirations for glamorous jobs as dancers, singers, actresses, and so on.

As previously indicated, the largest portion (41 percent) told us they were already engaged in prostitution before they went abroad. We want to stress that this does not preclude the possibility that they may have been victimized earlier. Likewise, it also does not mean that these subjects could not have been subsequently victimized through physical abuse or various forms of deception or coercion when they went overseas.

Chapter six investigates the cosmopolitan practices, worldviews, and attitudes of migrant women and the syndicate members. It focuses on their multiracial and multicultural perceptions and understandings of different ways of being human and diverse practices of people born and raised in different nations and cultures.

In chapter seven, China concludes that migration for sex work is spurred by the constraints and opportunities in the marriage of patriarchal power and neoliberal free-market economies. China proposes that only policies that address these structural forces fully can cope with the issue of migration sex work. Otherwise, they can only reproduce the contradictions that spawn migration sex work.

Research in this book is based on interviews rather than participant observation in migrant sex workers’ natural surroundings. This research methodology can skew the research results because of the questionable validity of self-reporting. The argument of the book is also a repetition of the argument made in voluminous previous research on migrant sex work.

The book would benefit from a literature review of existent research on migrant sex work and a discussion of how this book advances and contributes to this literature. Nevertheless, Cosmopolitan Sex Workers should be welcomed by scholars who have an interest in trafficking, gender, migration, sex work, criminal justice, and Asian Studies.

Transmigration schemes to move urban residents to frontier areas in Indonesia mega-urban regions have continued to grow. While some inner city areas have lost populations because of out-migration and forcible eviction, suburban and exurban areas around mega-cities have continued to grow. This "spreading pancake" or "palm and fingers" expansion pattern has engulfed small towns, cities and other settlements in the urban periphery, joined the urban fields of other large cities, and formed city clusters or sprawling mega-urban regions.

The proper definition of mega-urban regions, of course, is not an easy task. However, it may be possible in the future to go beyond formal country definitions of urban agglomerations by using technological tools such as geographic information systems and satellite imagery to determine the actual extent of urban built-up areas that make up mega-urban regions. This is particularly important because of the rapidly rising urbanization levels in many developing countries, the blurring of urban-rural distinctions, and the emergence of city clusters.

For urban planning and governance purposes, there is a need to go beyond the demographic and spatial features of urban agglomerations and to fully consider the complex economic, social, political and technological processes and linkages involved in what has been called "urbanism as a way of life".

This change of perspective is called for in light of the increasing influence of globalisation forces that are transforming the functioning and structure of mega-urban regions. This paper analyzes the growth of mega-urban regions in Asia and suggests a typology that may be useful for classifying them. It explores the various issues confronting their development and then suggests various planning and governance approaches that may enhance their positive role in regional and national development.

Escort work in Penang and Langkawi for wealthy people, including a nice accompaniment to any event. It is often assumed the existence of a beautiful young lady, able to maintain a conversation on any topic and the time to brighten up the man, as well as make an impression (if is necessary) on others.

Special "wishes" are negotiated separately and for a fee, there is to be vigilant, to avoid potential misunderstandings. Adult entertainment - it is often requested form of customers, but its regulation occurs by mutual consent, otherwise working as escorts will not bring pleasure.

To get a better idea of the responsibilities, opportunities and requirements, you can look on the Penang and Langkawi forums about the escort work - there is a visual feedback of who has tried his hand in this area, expressed opinions on the companies that provide this kind of work, as well as expert advice and lovers.

They are not a criterion for selection, but read and read, ask relevant questions is quite possible, so you can easily determine whether or not to accept the proposed conditions, or still better beware. Often these sites are supervised by the organizations themselves, so if you have only rave reviews not desirable to immediately sign the contract. However, negative comments are just not 100% - pay attention to the fine print of the contract, discuss each item, if there is even the slightest doubt.

Remember that the girls working in the escort service, an elegant accompaniment of stylish young man rotating in secular circles, so the clothes from second-hand (worn, not fresh) here will not work.

Wardrobe, makeup, the whole look - only for the upper class, then there is a chance to get an expensive customer that pay attention to you. Do not forget about the existing competition in spite of the existing demand for this type of service desired by them to provide as much, so be prepared to struggle and constant desire to win "competition."

Sex workers are similarly aware of the limited opportunities available to them, and the fact that they would be valorised as hardworking women if they took lowpaying jobs in restaurants and factories instead of better- paying sex work. Arguing that sex work should be considered socially and legally legitimate, several women emphasise that "you are not what you do" because "your character matters more", in spite of hostile responses from family and society.

Just as interesting is the examination in Chapter Five of "Russian Mafia" – an illegal but well- established and successful group facilitating migrants’ placement in the sex trade within the city in return for a portion of their earnings.

Chin shows how the organisational structure of Russian Mafia has evolved considerably from its predecessor Chinese secret societies, as well as highlighting the traditional gender roles which have evolved much less. The management of Russian Mafia is made up only of men, while the workers are exclusively female, catering exclusively to men (women clients would be "unnatural", according to a Syndicate member).

Chin also examines the racial hierarchies of the sex trade: Russian Mafia prefers lighter- skinned sex workers, who earn much more than darker-skinned women – a view of migrants not dissimilar to that expressed by state actors in migration control in Chapter Three.

Despite the "cosmopolitanism" of the book’s title and of the sex workers themselves, then, their experiences in Kuala Lumpur remain fundamentally stratified by both race and gender.

Overall, this is a fascinating and extremely unusual book, which brings together macro and micro perspectives to present a rich and nuanced picture of transnational sex work, based on extensive fieldwork in hard- to- access communities. Cosmopolitan Sex Workers should be of interest to all those studying international migration, the sex trade, and gender and globalisation.

Though medical care might be available if a woman succeeded in maintaining a good relationship with her manager, such care also lengthened the period of debt repayment as the cost of any treatment was added to her debt.

Several of the women we interviewed escaped from this situation, but most repaid their debts – over a period of anywhere from several months to two years – and then continued to work in Malaysia in order to earn money for themselves and their families back in Thailand. There are a number of reasons why escape is unusual.

The nature of debt bondage provides women with strong incentives to acquiesce to their managers' demands, as the debt period is typically temporary, but all repayment calculations are at their employers' discretion. Furthermore, escape is difficult and dangerous. Women are kept under near constant surveillance, their passports and other documentation are confiscated, they have little cash, and they are isolated by barriers of language and culture. They are threatened with violent retaliation or "resale" into greater debt if they are caught, and sometimes with retaliation against their family members if they are not.

In addition, while Malaysian authorities, if contacted, may be willing to facilitate escape attempts, they will also begin deportation procedures, without offering women any opportunity to seek compensation for back wages or damages. Similarly, Thai Embassy officials assist women in returning home to Thailand, but they do not provide women with any assistance in obtaining legal recourse for the abuses they have suffered. Some women find their working conditions so unbearable that they would like to return home, even empty-handed, but most put up with the abuse in hopes of obtaining the money they need to support themselves and their families back home.

Laws to crack down on traffickers have proven difficult to enforce in practice, and other preventative efforts have been undermined by preconceptions about proper roles and occupations for women. Vocational training for women emphasizes traditionally female skills, such as sewing and hair dressing, which do not typically lead to well-paying jobs and thus are not seen as likely to lead to a meaningful alternative career.

Information campaigns warn women of the dangers of migration, but fail to provide them with any useful information about their rights or the services available to them when abroad, so that women who decide to migrate despite the risks are unable to protect themselves from exploitation. And the services provided to women victims of trafficking and debt bondage do not include any effort to assist women in seeking back wages or other compensation for the abuses they have suffered.

Finally, the Thai government has abdicated its responsibility for women and girls whose homes are in Thailand, but who lack official Thai citizenship. This problem of denial of citizenship is one affecting hundreds of thousands of people in Thailand. Without Thai citizenship, the vulnerability of such women to trafficking agents is enhanced, both because they are denied access to the same education and employment opportunities as Thai nationals and because they cannot obtain the documents necessary for international travel through legal channels.

Even more devastating, once these women leave Thailand it is almost impossible for them to return as the Thai government does not recognize their right of reentry. Consequently, such women who have been trafficked into debt bondage in Malaysia are obliged to remain in that country in a state of legal and social limbo, separated indefinitely, and perhaps forever, from their homes and families.

Working in escort agency in Kuala Lumpur - is not "free money" for night of fun and debauchery. In this dangerous and unpredictable business, not a place hypochondriac and naive girls who dream to find a rich "daddy" and to marry him to me: so you can break down in a matter of weeks.

You must not only be beautiful and perfect to make good money. To be able to support intelligent conversation among client peers during corporate party. To be able to arrange it for themselves, for the hundredth time listening to the complaints of women in business failures. Not be able to bend under the psychological pressure, which becomes more and more with each passing day.

You must love to please men, not showing his weakness, skillfully putting on the mask of sympathy, admiration, understanding, compassion. To be a goddess, cleverly enough to deliver physical pleasure. I like to be an actress, I like the first seconds of acquaintance to penetrate the secret thoughts of men and to anticipate his wishes, because that is what he is willing to pay big money. I appreciate the independence, that's what gives me work in escort agencies.

Recent work in escort services in every possible way denigrated. About us say that we do not have any morals nor any principles of life, they say, so everyone can. However, when dealing with the first client turns out that it is incredibly complex. So just go and surrender to the stranger, stepping over their own emotions. No, my dear, so can not all. Yes, that really there, I openly declare that you have to be bold, daring to go to us. Yes, at first difficult, especially to separate work from "home". Share the concept of "out of love" and "duty". But such "psychological subtlety" - is just the beginning of our difficult profession.

The strong demand for foreign escort in Malaysia has also been accompanied by policies in several less wealthy countries that encourage workers to migrate abroad in the hope of gaining much-needed foreign currency through remittances, while alleviating unemployment problems at home. Escort exporting policies in the Philippines, for example, are well-known, and over the last few decades, the Thai government has similarly encouraged its nationals to seek employment overseas.

Consistent with migration trends in the rest of Asia, Thai migrants in the 1970s and early 1980s were drawn by the pull of thriving economies in the Middle East, where employment opportunities were more lucrative than those available in Thailand. But in the late 1980s, the destination of unskilled Thai migrants largely shifted from the Middle East to Malaysia, Singapore, and Taipei. Malaysian economic expansion included large-scale investment in Thailand, often through joint ventures with Thai companies, thus fostering close economic ties between the two countries.

In 1993, the Thai Ministry of escort estimated that there were 370500 Thai nationals working abroad - counting both documented and undocumented migrants - including 100000 in Malaysia and 216000 in other Asian countries. This was an increase from only 6000 Thai nationals working in Malaysia, and 16000 in the rest of Asia, in 1988. And migrant workers sent significant amounts of money back to their families in Thailand.

In 1995, remittances from overseas Thai workers in Asia totaled roughly US$1 billion. This included about US$100 million from Malaysia alone. Since 1993, migration from Thailand to Malaysia has slowed somewhat due to Malaysian economic difficulties and its related crackdown on illegal migration, but authoritative estimates suggest that there are still tens of thousands of Thai migrants working in Malaysia each year.

The demand for unskilled migrant escort in Malaysia has continued to outstrip legal limits on the supply, and the majority of unskilled migrant workers in the country are undocumented. Typically these workers enter Malaysia through legal channels, though often with falsified documentation, on a tourist or transit visa, and then overstay their visa expiration date and engage in activities outside their visa status. Others sneak into Malaysia, bypassing immigration controls entirely, and thus enter the country without any documentation at all.

Only a very small number of work visas have been made available to Thai nationals, so the great majority of migrant Thai workers in Malaysia are undocumented. The Malaysian government estimates their numbers based on the number of persons with Thai passports who have entered Malaysia on temporary visitor visas and then overstayed their visa expiration dates. From 1991 to 1994, Malaysian government statistics indicate that Thai nationals constituted the largest group of overstayers, with a total of more than 32000 Thai overstayers in 1991 and almost 47000 by the end of 1994.

In 1997, Malaysian government statistics showed that at nearly 40000, Thai overstayers continued to represent a significant percentage of the undocumented migrants in Malaysia (fourteen percent), though their numbers had been surpassed by Korean (eighteen percent) and Filipino (fifteen percent) nationals.

Moreover, many believe that the actual number of undocumented Thai migrants in Malaysia is much higher than the Malaysian Immigration Bureau statistics indicate. The Counsellor at the Thai Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, for example, told Human Rights Watch that there were approximately eighty thousand Thai "overstayers" in Malaysia in 1995, including about thirty thousand who either entered with Malaysian or Singaporean passports, or entered Malaysia illegally by boat.

Abuses are common as job brokers and employers take advantage of foreign women's vulnerability as undocumented migrants: they cannot seek recourse from the police or other law enforcement authorities without risking deportation and potential prosecution, and they are isolated by language barriers, a lack of community, and a lack of familiarity with their surroundings. Compounding the difficulty and danger of escape, women in "debt" are kept under constant surveillance, their wages are withheld, and their passports and other documentation are confiscated, depriving them of proof of identity.

In addition, the Mafia is heavily involved in the operation of many of these establishments; bar and brothel owners are often Mafia members themselves, or else pay protection money to the Mafia in exchange for assistance both in "disciplining" women who disobey orders or attempt to escape and in evading police and immigration raids. As one Malaysian sex worker - and sex workers' rights activist - explained to Human Rights Watch, "Foreign sex workers are kept isolated, without information about Malaysia, and their passports are confiscated. Malaysian women are too knowledgeable about their rights, so owners use foreigners. Other Asian woman, in particular, are viewed as controllable by Malaysian men."

The brokers and employers involved in recruiting foreign women into Malaysia derive enormous profits from their earnings. Even at the lower end of the sex industry, fees are significant, and brokers and employers take a large cut by entirely withholding wages from women in debt and taking up to fifty percent of the fees from non-indebted women. Women from Thailand who work in "dating" snack bars reported that clients were charged fees of $170 to $250 for two hours and $250 to $340 for a full night. While in debt, the women typically worked seven nights a week, servicing between one and three clients a night, and all of their earnings went to their employer. Using conservative figures, a noted Thai economist estimated the gross annual income generated by Thai sex workers in Malaysia as $3.3 billion US.

Abuses are common as job brokers and employers take advantage of foreign women's vulnerability as undocumented migrants: they cannot seek recourse from the police or other law enforcement authorities without risking deportation and potential prosecution, and they are isolated by language barriers, a lack of community, and a lack of familiarity with their surroundings. Compounding the difficulty and danger of escape, women in "debt" are kept under constant surveillance, their wages are withheld, and their passports and other documentation are confiscated, depriving them of proof of identity.

In addition, the Mafia is heavily involved in the operation of many of these establishments; bar and brothel owners are often Mafia members themselves, or else pay protection money to the Mafia in exchange for assistance both in "disciplining" women who disobey orders or attempt to escape and in evading police and immigration raids.

As one Malaysian sex worker - and sex workers' rights activist - explained to Human Rights Watch, "Foreign sex workers are kept isolated, without information about Malaysia, and their passports are confiscated. Malaysian women are too knowledgeable about their rights, so owners use foreigners.

Other Asian woman, in particular, are viewed as controllable by Malaysian men."

The brokers and employers involved in recruiting foreign women into Malaysia derive enormous profits from their earnings. Even at the lower end of the sex industry, fees are significant, and brokers and employers take a large cut by entirely withholding wages from women in debt and taking up to fifty percent of the fees from non-indebted women.

Women from Thailand who work in "dating" snack bars reported that clients were charged fees of US $170 - $250 for two hours and US $250 - $340 for a full night. While in debt, the women typically worked seven nights a week, servicing between one and three clients a night, and all of their earnings went to their employer. Using conservative figures, a noted Thai economist estimated the gross annual income generated by Thai sex workers in Malaysia as US $3.3 billion.

Trafficking of women from Thailand into Malaysian sex industry reached large-scale proportions in the late 1980s, and remains an egregious problem more than a decade later. No effort has been made by the Malaysian and Thai governments to regularize the migration of Thai women, as in the case of Filipina migrants discussed above, even though the evidence suggests that such measures could reduce their vulnerability to abuse.

Malaysian economic recessions in the 1990s, coupled with an increase in the enforcement of immigration law, have had a dampening effect on migration flows, and, according to Malaysian government statistics, the number of female Thai "overstayers" has been gradually declining from a high of almost 30000 in 1993.

However, even by official Malaysian government estimates, the number of female overstayers from Thailand continues to exceed 20000 and as pointed out above, this excludes the numerous women from Thailand who have entered the country on non-Thai passports. Moreover, our research indicates that the abuses new entrants commonly suffer at the hands of their traffickers and initial employers in Malaysia remain largely unchanged.

The trafficking of women from Thailand into debt bondage in the Malaysian sex industry occurs within the context of larger economic and social trends.

This chapter begins with an overview of the patterns and characteristics of labor migration between Thailand and Malaysia, and in the region more generally, to provide a better understanding of some of the forces underlying the movement of women from Thailand to Malaysia. It also offers a brief description of Malaysian large and varied sex industry, and of the role of foreign women within this labor sector.

VIP escort service in Bukit Bintang is indispensable when traveling businessman abroad, particularly in the country and city where he had never before visited. Firstly, the agency will offer him a woman, speak foreign languages and knowing the culture of the country.

It will act as a translator and guide for VIP guests, and allow her to feel confident. Secondly, for some countries, a beautiful woman accompanied by a man is an added bonus to the business meetings. Third, after a hard day I like to relax in pleasant surroundings.

Charming companion will accompany you in a hike in a restaurant, a club, a disco or other entertainment facilities.

Note: Serious agencies comply with the law, so the only work with clients over 18 years, and provide them with adult women. Even on sites such agencies posted warning about age.

Also, some agencies in Kuala Lumpur did not provide fundamental services of an intimate nature - only escort support. But if between the client and the model came a romantic relationship, it is permissible, but in this case their intimate relationships will lie outside the scope of the agreement.

The girls work very hard in Bukit Bintang. Sometimes it may seem from that work for girls abroad as a model - a permanent vacation, entertainment, parties and a good reward. In fact it is not. Highly paid escort model - is hard work, daily improvement and self-development.

Earlier information on this company, we obtained empirically or by members of stories, when the modern development of technology, it is made available by posting on the sites.

Everyone can leave comments on the work of the organization, and we are talking not only about the positive. A special place is services, where for a fee, hired girls or boys as an elegant accompaniment to any event. Escort service today occupies a worthy position as a supplier of educated and beautiful lady.

Contrary to popular belief, VIP escort services are not confined exclusively to sex. An important aspect is the support of businessmen and corporate executives at various meetings, both business and informal. Society slender woman modeling appearance raises the status of man, especially if the woman also has a high intelligence.

While she was in debt, Aishah worried about her family back in Thailand. "I did not have any money to send home unless a client gave me a good tip. I just wanted to pay off my debt and get enough money to go home. But the mama was always swearing at me for saving money. The mama threatened me, saying that if I made any trouble she'd sell me again and double my debt. During the first three months I was never allowed out of the apartment except with the mama or a client. Even after three months I was allowed out only along with others and was warned not to make any friends." Some of the clients were abusive too.

"Once a Mafiozy member took me out for the night. He brought me to a hotel room and first injected himself with heroin and then tried to force me to inject. I refused and struggled. He beat me until I was almost dead. Then he took a rubber band out and strapped it around my arm and was just about to inject me when he passed out. I tried to move and after some time was able to get out of the hotel and fled back to my apartment. I didn't dare tell anybody what happened or seek medical help for my injuries."

Despite the terrible conditions, Aishah did not try to escape. "When the Chinese police came around I knew that I had overstayed my visa and that the mama had my passport. I never dared to run away or even considered running to the police without my documents. Without my documents I was sure I would be arrested and jailed... I tried to be cooperative with the mama and not make any troubles for myself."

After paying off her debt, Aishah continued to work at the snack bar for another year, trying to save enough money to return home. While she was working there, she met a man who asked her to marry him, and she agreed. When they went to register the marriage, the official resisted.

"The provincial official asked me how I could register as an overstayer. I had already found out how it was done so I explained it to him. Then the official claimed my documents were fake. I explained that if they were fake, I would not have tried to come here to register legally." Eventually, she and her husband were successful.

I always kept US$ 980 in my pocket to pay for my ticket to Thailand in case I was arrested and deported, so I had that with me. I also had my passport - the mama had kept it while I was in debt, but after my contract was paid I carried it at all times.

I gave my money and passport to the officer, and she let me get my stuff, and then I was taken to jail an immigration detention facility in Kuala Lumpur. Five days later I returned to Thailand. I didn't have to stay long because I had my passport and enough money for the trip home... When I left, I just got onto the plane like other passengers. There were twenty-four of us arrested together at the snack bar, and we were sent back to Thailand in groups of three or four.

Now Kaew is back in her village in Thailand. She worries that her sons are embarrassed about the work she did while they were growing up.

Whenever I think too much, I get sad. But then I remember when I could only feed my children rice and soup. My husband didn't help, so my kids had to stay with my mother while I went to earn money. That guy was physically abusive too. He would come home drunk and beat me. I tried to work it out with him. But things never changed. The oldest son knows everything I did. He remembers before, knows the choices I've made. I worry that my children will be embarrassed by me, by the fact that I was a prostitute. But I tell my kids: "I had many men on my chest and I cried, but I closed my eyes and thought of my kids." I don't know if they really listen or if it's in one ear and out the other.

Asked what she would say to other women who wanted to go to Malaysia, Kaew replied.

It's all good luck or not. It was good luck that I had a good snack bar, and bad luck that I got arrested, and good luck that I found a good boyfriend. If you talk to different women, you will get very different stories. Some women start to gamble, spend their money on hosts, and drink. It gets difficult to remember why you're there, for the young especially. Some are less obedient than me, so they have problems. The snack bar next door to me was run by the Mafia so it was worse. Some women are killed or followed if they escape, or even if they are arrested. Some are followed to Thailand, so many don't go back to their families right away, but wait. Now I want to go back to Malaysia to visit, but only legally. When I was in Malaysia, I had no rights because the job was illegal. I'd like to go back to see, independently. I'm trying to go legally, with a passport, so that I'm allowed to be there.

The next morning, a Japanese man came to the hotel to get Nuch and took her to an apartment in Tokyo. There were three or four other Thai women at the apartment, and many Thai men as well. Everyone slept in the same room, and Nuch was told that a Thai woman named Ice was the 'boss.' "Ice told me I was to stay here and that I shouldn't speak Thai outside the apartment. Ice told me I couldn't escape and not to even try."

Nuch stayed in the apartment for two days without going out and did not talk to anyone. She thought it was strange that the women worked all night, but she did not ask any questions. After two nights, Nuch was told to pack up her things and get dressed. Two other Thai women were told to do the same. "Another woman took the three of us. We traveled all day by train. Once off the train, I was separated from the others and brought straight to a snack bar. I was very cold because I had no winter clothes. The snack bar was very small and had only four other Thai women there. They worked and slept at the snack shop. The mama was a Taiwanese woman." Nuch stayed there for two nights, and nobody came to the restaurant. She still did not understand that she was to work as a prostitute.

After two days, the Japanese man who had picked her up at the hotel in Tokyo the morning after she arrived in Japan came to the snack bar to get her. During the next two weeks, this man took Nuch to different apartments and restaurants. Nuch said she was not forced to stay with him, but she had no passport or money, nor any idea where else to go. Finally, Nuch was taken to a snack bar that was owned by a Thai woman and her Japanese husband, a member of the Yakuza. The other Thai women at the snack bar told Nuch that she would have to prostitute herself.

"They told me there was no way out and I would just have to accept my fate. The snack bar had many customers who I saw drinking alcohol and singing. I was told I had to go to sit with them. I knew then what had happened to me. That first night I had to take several men, and after that I had to have at least one client every night." Nuch said that the mama didn't actually "force" her to take clients, but she found clients for her, and Nuch always accepted them because she did not think she could refuse. During her time at the snack bar, Nuch never saw a doctor, nor received any health check-ups.

Human Rights Watch also documented violations of women's labor rights in Malaysia that were the direct result of trafficking. These abuses constitute violations of both Malaysian domestic legislation (see the "Malaysian Government Response" chapter for a discussion of Malaysian labor laws) and international human rights law. To provide adequate redress for trafficked persons and to deter further violations, Malaysia must take the steps necessary to prevent these abuses, punish offenders, and compensate victims. The Thai government should also adopt measures aimed to protect its nationals from labor rights abuses both at home and abroad and to facilitate Thai women's ability to seek compensation for labor rights violations suffered in Malaysia.

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)recognizes the right to fair wages, reasonably limited working hours, and rest days. In violation of these standards, the women we interviewed were given no compensation at all for months or longer, while they worked excessively long hours – without days off for rest or, in some cases, even illness – to pay off illegal and arbitrarily inflated "debts." The ICESCR also provides that all workers have a right to safe and healthy working conditions. Despite this guarantee, women reported that their safety and health were jeopardized by employers who limited and, in some cases, denied them access to health services and medication; compelled them to accept physically abusive clients; and coerced them into performing sexual services without condoms, exposing them to the risk of contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Kept under constant surveillance and threatened with retaliation if they tried to escape, women from Thailand working in debt bondage in the Malaysian sex industry had little choice but to accept these conditions. Moreover, even when they were released from debt – or detained by Malaysian officials – they were not given any opportunity to seek redress. As stated above, the ICCPR requires that states guarantee all persons equal protection under the law. Consequently, trafficked women must have the same access to Malaysian labor law protections as all other persons in Malaysia.

Though the women's immigration status did not permit their employment under Malaysian immigration laws, this does not affect their labor rights vis-a-vis their employers – according to either international law or Malaysian domestic law – and should not have affected their ability to seek compensation in Malaysia for work they had done. In addition, as parties to the ICESCR, Malaysia and Thailand have undertaken to uphold the rights provided under this covenant without discrimination based on sex, nationality or other status. The Malaysian government's failure to prosecute labor rights violations endured by trafficked women allowed employers to continue unjustly to enrich themselves and thus encouraged the continued exploitation of the women. The failure of Thai government officials charged with protecting the labor rights of Thai nationals in Malaysia to assist female migrants only encouraged this injustice.

Women trafficked from Thailand are subjected to a range of slavery-like practices during their travel, job placement, and employment in Malaysia, practices clearly condemned under international law.

The women we interviewed described being "bought" and "sold" by agents, brokers, and employers. They spoke of their purchase "price," and explained that the person who "bought" them demanded strict obedience, using a variety of coercive tactics to ensure their acquiescence. The slavery-like nature of these practices was illustrated perhaps most clearly by the fact that employers and brokers maintained the power – and believed it was their right – to "resell" women at their discretion.

Under the ICCPR, Malaysia and Thailand have an obligation to take the steps necessary to prevent all forms of slavery, the slave-trade, servitude, and forced or compulsory labor, and they must provide remedies for the victims when violations occur. Slavery and the slave-trade are defined under the Slavery Convention as, respectively, "the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised" and "all acts involved in the capture, acquisition or disposal of a person with intent to reduce him to slavery; all acts involved in the acquisition of a slave with a view to selling or exchanging him; all acts of disposal by sale or exchange of a slave acquired with a view to being sold or exchanged, and, in general, every act of trade or transport in slaves."

So Nuch continued to work and after three months had paid off about US$ 8000. Two of the Thai women at the snack bar had been there nearly two years and had not yet finished paying back their debts. Another Thai woman had been there one and a half years and was also still paying back her debt. Nuch was never taken to see a doctor, and while the snack bar provided condoms and told the clients to use them, they seldom did. "In all my time in Japan only about ten clients ever used condoms and even then they broke a couple of times. I did not know about AIDS then or what 'blood positive' meant."

After about three months, a group of five Japanese men came into the snack bar. They appeared much neater than the usual clients. These men asked Nuch where she was from in Japanese, and she told them she was from Malaysia. Then they asked her something in Malaysian, but she could not answer. The five men came to the snack bar on three different occasions, and then one morning, the police came to arrest the women.

"They asked me and the others in Thai if we wanted to go home, and if so to get our clothes. Only myself and one other woman got our clothes. Everyone was arrested, the mama, her husband, the two Taiwanese friends, and the seven Thai women. One Thai woman had just finished off her debt after two years and was about to be paid for the first time for twenty clients. She was especially upset."

Nuch was taken to a police station and questioned. The police told her they would help her to get home, but instead she was detained for the next several months in solitary confinement, though she never understood why. While she was in jail, a doctor tested her blood three times, but did not tell her anything.

Eventually, Nuch was transferred to an immigration detention center, where she was held until the Thai Embassy issued her travel documents. In March 1993, Nuch went to the airport with the Japanese immigration officers and ten other Thai nationals. Upon arrival at Don Muang airport in Bangkok, the ten Thais were taken to the immigration office in the airport. Nuch was taken to a shelter where she has been living ever since. She understands now that she has HIV/AIDS.

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The following are excerpts from the testimonies provided by several of the Women organisation interviewed about their decisions to work in Malaysia. Though all of them made consensual decisions to migrate to Malaysia for work, and many knew they would be employed as sex workers, each of these women were subsequently trafficked into coercive labor conditions:

Rei grew up in southern Thailand. She completed the twelfth grade in school and then got a job as a receptionist for five months. For the next four years, she took many different jobs, but didn't keep any of them for more than five months. During much of that time, Rei had no job at all. So, she said, "I heard about many women going to work in Malaysia, and I knew many agents in my neighborhood who could arrange for me to go. I knew I would have to be a prostitute, but the promise of a good salary was very appealing."

Phan was born in Burma. She is the second of seven children. In 1985, when Phan was fourteen years old, she and her sister moved to Thailand to join their parents and siblings, who had moved there a year earlier. The next year, when Phan was fifteen and her parents were having difficulty finding enough money to support the family, Phan began working at a brothel in Chiang Rai province. After about four years of working as a sex worker in Thailand and Malaysia, Phan was approached by a Thai man who asked her if she wanted to go work in Malaysia.

Soi was born in Chiang Rai province and was a seamstress in Bangkok. She was making 3000 baht or US$120 a month. Soi was twenty-four years old when she was recruited in 1990. A Thai friend whom she had known for two years asked her if she would be interested in going to Malaysia. As Soi recalled, "My friend didn't tell me what kind of work there was, but said I could make a lot of money. I was interested."

Bua was an only child, and her father died when she was young. She lived with her mother, grandmother, and grandfather. After she finished sixth grade, she stopped going to school. She wanted to continue her studies, but the school was far from her house and her family could not afford to send her. When she was fifteen years old, her friends went to work as sex workers, and she went with them. Over the next four years, she worked variously in Bangkok, southern Thailand, and her village, sending money home to support her family. In 1991, she met someone who asked her to go to Malaysia.

Nat, whose experiences in Malaysia are described above, traveled from Hat Yai to the Thai coast, where, she explained, "Two men were waiting and they took me and my friend on a small boat. Both were policemen. On the boat, my friend and I were told not to tell anyone that the two men were police... After about two hours, the boat arrived at a pier with fishing nets everywhere. The border police seemed to have been informed about our arrival and immediately opened the lock for the wire fence." Nat and her friend had arrived in Malaysia; a month later, Nat flew to Malaysia on a Malaysian passport.

Allegations that corrupt officials are involved in facilitating trafficking operations have been supported by a number of sources, including Thai officials. A Thai Labor Affairs Officer stationed in Kuala Lumpur told Women organisation about a case in which a twenty-year-old Thai woman entered Malaysia with the passport of a fifty-year-old woman; only the photo had been replaced.

The Thai woman had explained to the officer that she used a password, as she had been instructed, and passed through immigration at Narita airport without any questions asked. There have also been reports in the Thai press of collaboration by both Thai and Malaysian officials in such scams.

During the investigation of the murder of two Thai agents in March 1995, the Northern Bangkok Metropolitan Division Deputy Commander, Kongdej Chusri, told reporters that he believed that for there to be trafficking in women, both Thai and Malaysian officials had to be involved in the trafficking of women. He explained, "It is difficult to leave Thailand and enter Malaysia with a fake passport.

Without assistance from the immigration authorities, it would be almost impossible for them to slip through the tight control of immigration." And a study published by Chulalongkorn University of Thailand in 1998 noted that agents who exploit Thai labor migrants, facilitating their travel arrangements and then subjecting them to indentured labor, are "aided by corrupt police and other government officials in the immigration office, the airport authority, and other offices."

Naiyana Supapong, who served as the Director of Friends of Women in Asia (FOWIA) from 1992 to 1998, helping women who had decided work overseas in Malaysia, Hong Kong, and other countries, explained:

Women only get positive information from agents and returning women, but they don't know about the negative things. So I gave them both – the positive and the negative information. I said to them, "some women are successful, but do you know about the suffering behind their success?" Most of the women said: we've heard about the bad situations, but some women have good luck, and we hope we'll be one of them. So most went anyway – they had already made the decision to go when I met them – but this way they were better prepared.

And, according to another Thai NGO worker. In the case of Malaysia, lots of women know what they'll do and know they'll have hardships, but they still want to go because they are so poor. The Social Welfare Department tries to prevent them from going with information campaigns in the villages saying how hard it will be in Malaysia, that they'll be beaten, etc. A police officer who is also a song writer Police Colonel Surasak Sutharom even wrote a song about exporting women, saying that it is not a heaven but a hell. There were also ex-sex workers on talk shows on television saying don't go to Malaysia. But still women want to go.

Most of the women explained that they were first approached by a relative, neighbor, or other acquaintance, who told them about opportunities to work in Malaysia:

Rei's recruiter was a Thai man who lived in her neighborhood. He was known as the "boss lek" and was known to have arranged jobs for many women in Malaysia.

Khai was recruited in 1991, at age sixteen, by a client while she was working as a masseuse and sex worker in a massage parlor in southern Thailand. As she explained to Women organisation, "a client invited me to work in Kuala Lumpur. I explained that I had no identification, but he said he could get me a passport because he was a member of parliament. So I agreed, and the client took me to a place to have my body checked. There I saw many other Thai girls trying to go to Malaysia. I was told I would work as a server."

Faa had left her village in Thailand to work in a sewing shop in Bangkok. When she was nineteen years old, her relatives in Bangkok convinced her to go to work in Malaysia.

Nam had been working at a restaurant in Chiang Rai Province when she was invited to go to Malaysia by a friend in 1991. As she recalled, "I could not find a job in Thailand and I saw that many women in the village had gone to Malaysia, so I decided to go." She was twenty-eight years old at the time.

If a woman expressed interest in going to Malaysia, the recruiter typically offered to introduce her to an agent who could make all the arrangements. Once a woman agreed to see an agent, the recruiter hurried to make the introduction. After that, the woman generally did not see her recruiter again. Chan was recruited to go to Malaysia in 1993, by friends of her aunt's whom she had known for a long time. She told Women organisation that one of these friends "introduced me to an agent, and the agent gave the recruiter 30,000 baht (US$1200)."

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